the rules governing sex and death and the preordained, black and white park, the blue zones of longevity

Ethics are often referred to as applied morals. here is a set of beliefs, based on some system – often faith based, often based on rationalism and normative consequences. Though sometimes overlooked, it is not uncommon to combine beliefs with normative consequences, than heavily lacing the two with one’s own personal psychological framing. While I tend to think the influence of public officials in regards how people form their moral code is often overestimated, regardless of religion or politics, they do often mirror the world view of others – which would explain to some degree how some wacky characters are elected to public office, Mitt Romney Endorsed Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock (R-IN) Who Calls Calls Rape Pregnancies A ‘Gift From God’. I can safely say that in the KJV Bible there is nothing saying that rape is a gift from either the new or Old Testament. If Mourdock were catholic that Biblical omission might be explained away by an edict from the Pope, who as God’s spokesperson on earth, can add to Biblical laws. Or in the case of eating meat on Fridays, reassess the situation and make what was previously a sin, unsinful. Mourdock is applying the general belief that everything that happens in life is God’s will from the general to the particular. Not that logic has a whole lot to do with his thinking anyway, but if we were to apply the same general rule to say contraception and abortion, than those actions would be God’s will as well, since everything that happens is God’s will. Protestants have a way of moving the parameters of sin around as well, it is just not as formal, Did He Miss The Boat?

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Tom Smith apparently missed the boat with his own rape comments. Commenting on the horror of rape, Smith said he knew how bad it was since he experienced something similar.

“I lived something similar to that with my own family,” Smith said. He then described his daughter’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy — from consensual sex.

“She chose life, and I commend her for that. She knew my views but fortunately for me … she chose the way I thought. Now don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t rape.”

Smith affirmed that he believed his daughter’s pregnancy from consensual sex was similar to a rape. “Put yourself in a father’s position, yes, I mean it is similar.”

So all sex is rape. Pregnancies from rape are God’s gift. These being such tough economic times that the only way the U.S. can survive is to gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and the U.S. had an estimated 90,000 reported ( as opposed to total rapes reported and unreported) rapes and each conviction costs about $20k per year for the incarceration of the attacker ( apparently just the father of the child in Smith’s view); would it not be in our best interests – with our moral view shaped by Tom Smith (R-PA), Richard Mourdock (R-IN) and Mitt Romney is we just let all of those convicted of rape out of prison and took all rape laws off the books. You know, just as an extension of the faith-based insights of the conservative Republican view of morality. Those being an extension of God’s will. And who are we as a nation to defy God’s will as interpreted by Smith, Mourdoch and Romney. Within the framework of the unquestionable morality of conservatism there is another option. Conservatives love “castle” or “stand your ground” laws. Unarmed and Gunned Down by Homeowner in His ‘Castle’

The last mistake Dan Fredenberg made was getting killed in another man’s garage.

It was Sept. 22, and Mr. Fredenberg, 40, was upset. He strode up the driveway of a quiet subdivision here to confront Brice Harper, a 24-year-old romantically involved with Mr. Fredenberg’s young wife. But as he walked through Mr. Harper’s open garage door, Mr. Fredenberg was doing more than stepping uninvited onto someone else’s property. He was unwittingly walking onto a legal landscape reshaped by laws that have given homeowners new leeway to use force inside their own homes.

Proponents say the laws strengthen people’s right to defend their homes. To others, they are a license to kill.

That night, in a doorway at the back of his garage, Mr. Harper aimed a gun at the unarmed Mr. Fredenberg, fired and struck him three times. Mr. Fredenberg crumpled to the garage floor, a few feet from Mr. Harper. He was dead before morning.

Apparently he was still a threat after the first gunshot wound. What if women started taking the “castle” laws as an extension of their right to defend their person against rape, which is God’s will and blessing. If women or men started shooting people – three times – that they felt might rape them or have consensual sex with them. As we know, everything that happens in life is God’s will, so an estimated 90,000 dead rapists would be God’s will. That would save tax payers about $1.8 billion dollars a year and it would all be because God ordained it be that way, otherwise his invisible hand would stop the sexual encounters or the bullets. If things do not work out for Smith, Mourdoch and Romney here, they might have some electoral success in Iran, where they share many of the social mores of the fundamentalist ruling mullahs.

Six months came and went. Moraitis didn’t die. Instead, he reaped his garden and, feeling emboldened, cleaned up the family vineyard as well. Easing himself into the island routine, he woke up when he felt like it, worked in the vineyards until midafternoon, made himself lunch and then took a long nap. In the evenings, he often walked to the local tavern, where he played dominoes past midnight. The years passed. His health continued to improve. He added a couple of rooms to his parents’ home so his children could visit. He built up the vineyard until it produced 400 gallons of wine a year. Today, three and a half decades later, he’s 97 years old — according to an official document he disputes; he says he’s 102 — and cancer-free. He never went through chemotherapy, took drugs or sought therapy of any sort. All he did was move home to Ikaria.

When he was 60 Moraitis was told he had incurable cancer. Interesting demographic and lifestyle trend in places designated “blue zones” that have the highest concentration of long lived humans in the world – there is Ikaria in Greece, and the women in Okinawa on average live much longer than the general populations of any other country.